Publications

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2008
Working Paper

The Architecture of Platforms: A Unified View

By: Carliss Y. Baldwin and C. Jason Woodard

The central role of "platform" products and services in mediating the activities of disaggregated "clusters" or "ecosystems" of firms has been widely recognized. But platforms and the systems in which they are embedded are very diverse. In particular, platforms may... View Details

Keywords: Digital Platforms; Industry Clusters; Infrastructure; Information Infrastructure; Digital Platforms

2009
Chapter

Self-regulatory Institutions for Solving Environmental Problems: Perspectives and Contributions from the Management Literature

By: Andrew A. King and Michael W. Toffel

Scholars of management have long considered how institutions can help resolve market imperfections and thereby improve human welfare. Most previous research has emphasized the use of for-profit firms. Such institutions cannot effectively address many environmental... View Details

Keywords: For-Profit Firms; Investment; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Competitive Advantage

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21 Jan 2015
Lessons from the Classroom

Managing the Family Business: Market Basket’s Lessons About Buyouts

2014, when George's branch obtained control and fired the CEO—who happened to be a cousin, Arthur T. Demoulas. Management was outraged, and the employees walked out in support View Details

Keywords: Retail

13 Aug 2014
Lessons from the Classroom

Managing the Family Business: Entrepreneurs Needed for Long-Run Success

reassess the importance of entrepreneurs for not only the continuation of the family company, but for the continued success of the family itself. View Details

Keywords: by Michael J. Roberts

Research Summary

The Role of Information Technology in the Provision of Services

By: James I. Cash

James I. Cash, Jr. is exploring the role of information technology in service management. Specifically, he is studying the implications of the ubiquity of information technology at three levels in service-providing organizations. (In the United States today, service... View Details

March 2006 (Revised September 2006)
Case

Slots, Tables, and All That Jazz: Managing Customer Profitability at the MGM Grand Hotel

By: Dennis Campbell, Francisco de Asis Martinez-Jerez, Marc Epstein and Joshua Bellin

The MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas had detailed information on loyal gaming customers, but could its information systems also be tailored to nongaming customers? As the nongaming business sectors became increasingly profitable both at the MGM Grand and in Las Vegas... View Details

Keywords: Games, Gaming, and Gambling; Customer Relationship Management; Customer Value and Value Chain; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Accommodations Industry; Nevada

November 2000 (Revised March 2001)
Case

Iggy's Bread of the World

By: Kathleen L. McGinn and Alexis Lefort

In January 1994, Igor and Ludmilla Ivanovic opened the doors of their bakery, Iggy's Bread of the World. This case describes their unusual mission statement and the way in which they try to bring a social consciousness mentality to a for-profit business. Six years... View Details

Keywords: Growth Management; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Culture; Restructuring; Family Business; Power and Influence; Food and Beverage Industry; Retail Industry; Massachusetts

June 2004 (Revised November 2004)
Case

Birth of the Swatch, The

By: Youngme E. Moon

In 1993, the Swatch is the best-selling watch in history. Traces the history of the watch industry up to the early 1980s, when the Swatch was introduced. Describes the various elements that made the Swatch different from any watch the industry had ever seen. Also... View Details

Keywords: History; Management; Product Positioning; Marketing Strategy; Business Startups; Brands and Branding; Manufacturing Industry

May 1992 (Revised August 1996)
Case

NIKE in Transition (A): The Ascendancy of Bob Woodell

By: Christopher A. Bartlett

Explores Bob Woodell's tenure as Nike's first COO. Describes development of Woodell's management style, his attempts to develop the organization, and his responses to unforeseen business problems. Changing market forces, new competitors, a build-up of low-end... View Details

Keywords: Conferences; Crisis Management; Management Style; Marketing Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Performance Evaluation; Competition

April 1989 (Revised January 1990)
Case

Texas Instruments: Cost of Quality (B)

By: Robert S. Kaplan

A division questions whether to retain, modify, or abandon its cost of quality system now that more direct measures of quality have been adopted. Discusses the role of quality cost measurement in a mature quality management system. View Details

Keywords: Measurement and Metrics; Quality

2019
Working Paper

Self-Interest: The Economist's Straitjacket

By: Robert Simons

This paper examines contemporary economic theories that focus on the design and management of business organizations. In the first part of the paper, a taxonomy is presented that describes the different types of economists interested in this subject—market economists,... View Details

SSRN

Web

Technology & Operations Management Awards & Honors - Faculty & Research

for Operations Research and the Management Sciences Information Systems Society (INFORMS ISS). Feng Zhu : Recipient of the Inaugural Management... View Details

September 2014 (Revised February 2017)
Case

Belk: Towards Exceptional Scheduling

By: Ethan Bernstein, Saravanan Kesavan, Bradley Staats and Luke Hassall

With 24,000 staff and over 300 stores, Belk Inc. sought to replace its entirely manual labor scheduling system with an automated software solution from Reflexis. Belk hoped the upgrade would simplify scheduling, reduce time employees spent in non-customer-facing roles,... View Details

January 2007 (Revised December 2007)
Case

Digital China Holdings Limited: Managing the Transition from a Product-oriented to a Service-oriented Company

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Guoqing Chen, Kai Reimers and Xunhua Guo

Digital China is the largest Chinese independent systems integrator (IBM and HP are larger). Describes their history and their current strategy and invites the student to advise them as to how they should continue to grow in the future. This is the closest China... View Details

Keywords: History; Information Technology; Service Operations; Growth and Development Strategy; Technology Industry; China

Article

How Social Entrepreneurs Zig-Zag Their Way to Impact at Scale

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Tricia Gregg

This article provides guidance to social entrepreneurs and their funders as they seek to advance the enterprise from startup to scale. It focuses on the evolution of four social entrepreneurs and their decision-making paths as they attempt to scale their respective... View Details

Keywords: Systemic Impact; Scaling; Strategy Process; Nonprofit Organizations; Social Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy

February 2002
Case

Strategy of the Firm Under Regulatory Review: The Case of Chilectra

By: Rafael M. Di Tella and Alexander Dyck

Discusses the largest electric distribution company in Chile and one of the five largest private Chilean companies. Introduces the exercise of operating control in order to improve the profitability of the investments, privatization, and international expansions. View Details

Keywords: Corporate Governance; Corporate Accountability; Growth and Development Strategy; Privatization; Emerging Markets; Competitive Strategy; Expansion; Global Strategy; Governance Compliance; Utilities Industry; Chile

13 Sep 2019
Blog Post

An Uncommon Summer: Project Management at an Education Non-Profit

and we worked collaboratively to begin implementation before the end of my summer at Uncommon. Together, we implemented the use of Asana, a project management application, and... View Details

2020
Book

Experimentation Works: The Surprising Power of Business Experiments

By: Stefan Thomke

Don’t fly blind. See how the power of experiments works for you. When it comes to improving customer experiences, trying out new business models, or developing new products, even the most experienced managers often get it wrong. They discover that intuition,... View Details

Keywords: Experimentation; Experiments; Market Research; Innovation and Invention; Innovation and Management; Customers; Research

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